Chapter 14
Chapter 14
At this moment, Chai Meicen's mood was not exactly light.
If she had really misunderstood Zhou Rui, how heartbroken must Zhou Rui have felt when being scolded by her? Just thinking about it made her feel guilty and remorseful, and she wished she could have a good cry right now.
So when Yang Ming was fooling around, she didn't even smile.
Yang Ming also stopped joking and continued, "At first, my relationship with Brother Rui was not good at all. Brother Rui and I were like two people from different worlds. Back then, I was so skinny and little, and I always had frown lines, so everyone made fun of me for not having fully evolved."
In fact, even now Yang Ming was not very tall, with a slender figure, and he did look a bit like a little monkey.
However, Chai Meicen didn't think much of it. On the contrary, she felt that Yang Ming had a decent personality and was quite capable, so she had a good impression of him.
"For a long time, I was being bullied, in other words, suffering from school violence. They would order me around to do this and that, using me as an object for their amusement. I was bullied for...probably three or four years," Yang Ming said, raising his head to look at the sky, seemingly reminiscing. "At that time, I was very submissive and didn't dare to resist or tell my family about it. During that period, the whole school mocked me, and Zhou Rui was the only one who didn't. He stood up for me."
Chai Meicen suddenly felt her heart skip a beat. She seemed to understand all at once.
Still, she waited quietly for Yang Ming to continue. She wanted to know the details.
"Brother Rui couldn't stand to see me being bullied, so he told me to follow him and didn't make me do anything. But those guys would still come looking for me when they had the chance. Once, Brother Rui happened to catch them, and he lost his temper. He went over and beat up those guys, then told me that whatever they did to me, I should pay them back in kind."
Yang Ming suddenly felt a sense of relief, as if recalling it made him excited. He stood up and gestured dramatically to Chai Meicen, "During that time, Brother Rui kept helping me get even with them, using his words, ‘fight violence with violence.’ But because things got too chaotic around then, he gradually gained a reputation, attracting a lot of attention. After fighting several times with him, Brother Rui’s status became more and more stable, rising to where he is today."
"There must have been better ways to resolve this. Why did it have to be through this method?" Chai Meicen was very puzzled and even a little angry.
Why did he end up with such a bad reputation when his intentions were good?
"Do you really think that telling the teacher would have solved the problem?" Li Xiaonan, who was standing on the side, suddenly said coldly.
Chai Meicen looked up at Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan went on, "Yang Ming told his family too, but Yang Ming's parents actually asked him why those people bullied him instead of others, wondering if there was something wrong with Yang Ming himself. As for the class teacher, after criticizing those students, they took revenge on Yang Ming even more severely. If you don't make those people experience the same feeling, they won't know how outrageous they were. The point is wrong, okay?"
Yang Ming also smiled bitterly, "You can search online. Those so-called methods are all bullshit and often have no practical use at all. I also tried to struggle. I didn't want to be bullied all the time either, but back then, after thinking about it a lot, I felt that apart from transferring schools, there didn't seem to be any other way out."
Chai Meicen swallowed hard. Looking at Yang Ming, she suddenly felt extremely distressed.
"The kind are taken advantage of. Only by becoming tough can you manage. But...why should it be this way? Shouldn't those bullies be educated not to bully others? Why is it that we who are bullied have to find ways not to be bullied instead? The point is completely missed!"
As Yang Ming spoke, he was also angry. After finishing, he lowered his head slightly and fell silent for a while before calming down.
Secretly, he clenched his fists tightly. He really didn't want to recall these things.
"Zhou Rui never went looking for trouble on his own initiative," Li Xiaonan said at this time, afraid that Chai Meicen still didn't understand and would tattle on them again. "Every time he fought, it was because he was provoked or because he was helping people like Yang Ming. This time when Zhou Rui fought, neither of us asked for an explanation, but we believe Zhou Rui must have had his reasons."
After hearing what Li Xiaonan said, Chai Meicen suddenly teared up, unable to hold it in.
Zhou Rui's friends all believed in him unconditionally.
Yet she, as Zhou Rui’s mother, had failed to completely trust her own son.
There was clearly a lack of communication between her and Zhou Rui, which was why Zhou Rui could not open his heart to her. She began to reflect on herself, realizing that she had not done well enough.
The more misunderstandings grew as Zhou Rui refused to speak about it.
She felt that she needed to have an open heart-to-heart talk with Zhou Rui after this.
She had been an unqualified mother, but she wanted to be a good mother.
She really wanted to try her best for Zhou Rui.
Zhou Rui was a good kid.
Zhou Rui was her pride.
"Alright, I understand now," Chai Meicen said, choking back her tears. She stood up and patted Yang Ming on the shoulder, "Thank you for telling me so much."
After thinking for a moment, she added to both of them, "Thank you for being Zhou Rui's friends."
"What's there to thank about..." Yang Ming started smiling again.
There was no denying that Yang Ming's heart was very strong. Perhaps he really had been saved by Zhou Rui. It was not easy for him to be so cheerful now.
"Not tattling is the best thing you can do," Li Xiaonan said coldly.
"..." Chai Meicen looked deeply at this silly kid Li Xiaonan, swallowing back her tears.
*
The next morning, as soon as Chai Meicen entered the classroom, she went to Zhou Rui and said, "Let's find some time to chat, just the two of us."
"Didn't you already chat with Yang Ming and the others?" Zhou Rui's side also knew about it, but didn't make a big deal and just casually asked while continuing to play his game.
"I feel like we need to have a good talk, just the two of us. I suddenly realized that I don't understand you at all."
"Normal. I'm this old now. It's not like I've been by your side the whole time, so of course there are things you don't know about me. And I'm grown up now, so it's natural to have some secrets of my own." Zhou Rui's words were extremely annoying. "If you accidentally find out my secret of saving the world, I'd feel a bit embarrassed."
"Name a time and place, or else I'll confiscate your phone right now." Chai Meicen said impatiently.
"Then let's do it tonight!" Zhou Rui immediately changed his tune.
"Fine." Chai Meicen turned around, took out a book, and secretly pumped herself up.
After the preparatory bell rang, Chai Meicen started reading her book. She studied quite diligently. Having returned to school, she had nothing else to do, so she earnestly focused on studying.
At this time, the class teacher walked into the classroom to organize the students' morning reading.
Their morning reading was reciting English passages. They would also often watch English films in their classes, a feature of being an international class.
The teacher sat in the classroom for a while, then fixed his eyes on Zhou Rui.
At Monday's flag raising ceremony, Zhou Rui had really "stolen the show", causing even this class teacher to be implicated and get chewed out by the leadership.
As soon as he looked up, he saw Zhou Rui holding up a book as a screen while bowing his head to continue playing games. The teacher immediately got angry.
Did he think the teacher couldn't see?
The teacher walked over and flipped Zhou Rui's book over. Zhou Rui also reacted swiftly to protect his phone and desperately tried to finish this round.
"Zhou Rui, you just finished reading your letter of repentance a few days ago and haven't been disciplined for long, yet you're already back to your old self?" The teacher scolded while standing beside him.
"Yes, yes." Zhou Rui quickly agreed.
"Do you know how worried your mother was because of you? Seeing your mother like that made me feel bad for her too. Yet here you are still playing games so blithely? What's the use of scraping by to graduation like this?"
"Even if I scrape by to graduate, I can only inherit the family property and become a second generation rich house-owner."
It seemed Zhou Rui was just destined to make his classmates laugh, because no matter what he said casually, it cracked up his classmates. This made the teacher even more unhappy.
"What's with this attitude of yours?" the teacher asked.
"No attitude. I already said that guy surnamed Chen was asking for a beating. I did nothing wrong."
"Fine, I'm calling your mother right now to see what she has to say about this!" The teacher said and went back to the podium to fetch his phone.
As soon as Chai Meicen heard this, she became alert. She raised her hand and said, "Teacher, may I go to the bathroom?"
"Go on." The teacher casually replied.
Chai Meicen immediately took her phone and left the classroom.
She had just walked a few steps when her own phone rang.
She took a deep breath before answering the call, deliberately lowering her voice to say, "Hello, Teacher."
"Yes, hello. The handling result for Zhou Rui's fight has come out now - he will be criticized and put on notice. Yesterday, he publicly read a letter of repentance at school."
The teacher had deliberately set the call on speakerphone for Zhou Rui to hear what his mother would say. The classroom wasn't too far away, so Chai Meicen could still hear the broadcasted phone sound.
She didn't hesitate and cheerfully said, "I'm sorry for causing you trouble, Teacher. Usually our Zhou Rui is happy to uphold justice and help classmates, fighting injustice and aiding those in peril. It's just that he used the wrong methods. Fighting is indeed a bit extreme. I will educate him."
After she finished speaking, scattered laughter came from the classroom as the students tried to suppress it and not laugh out loud.
What Chai Meicen said was too polite, even apologizing, but the meaning of her words was clearly standing up for Zhou Rui.
Put bluntly, she meant: Our Zhou Rui fought to uphold justice, but fighting is wrong, and we admit that.
The teacher was speechless for a while.
Chai Meicen waited for a bit. Feeling nervous, she kept looking around in the hallway, afraid the teacher would suddenly come and discover her.
So she immediately added, "I know the school is fair and just. Students who really did something bad will also be dealt with. Although Chen did something wrong, we can educate him. He wanted to sneak attack Zhou Rui but instead got beaten up by Zhou Rui - we admit that part, and we paid the medical fees, but Chen should be put on notice, right? His nature was much worse."
"How can the one beaten be the one at fault?" The teacher asked in puzzlement.
How did the plot suddenly have a reversal?
Zhou Rui's mother didn't have this attitude before!
"I'm a bit busy recently. I've already messaged my friend, and he will go to the school soon to deal with this matter," Chai Meicen's words came through the phone's speaker, making Zhou Rui unable to hold back his laughter.
He knew his mother's temperament well - impatient and protective, yet extremely righteous. Now that Chai Meicen knew he had been wronged, she certainly wouldn't let it go easily. Her words proved that she really intended to handle this matter.
As for the "friend" Chai Meicen mentioned, Zhou Rui could guess who it was with his toes. Who else could it be but Hou Ranxi?
The homeroom teacher didn't want to continue on this topic, so he immediately changed the subject and said, "Just now Zhou Rui was playing on his phone during morning reading. What do you think of this?"
"Playing on his phone, huh..." Chai Meicen's voice came from the phone. "That's indeed wrong. You can confiscate his phone and not return it to him if he doesn't study properly."
"Alright, I'll do as you said."
After hanging up the phone, the homeroom teacher confiscated Zhou Rui's phone at the same time.
Zhou Rui was still happy just now, but became crestfallen after his phone was taken away...
When Chai Meicen came back, Zhou Rui was so angry that he pulled at her hair strands and asked while leaning in, "What are you doing? How could you let the teacher confiscate my phone?"
"You're playing on your phone during class and you still have the nerve to complain?"
Zhou Rui resigned himself to his fate. He was right - even if she's younger now, this was still his mother!